Hard drive slot on mac pro A1289 late 2012 5, 1

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Hard drive slot on mac pro A1289 late 2012 5, 1

the hard drive slot has 7 tiny pins in between the 7pins and the 15 pins that common 3.5" 32mb cache 3gbps hard drives have. I only found a specs page for mid 2012.

what are the extra 7 upside down pins. I hav'nt seen a hardrive with a connection like this.

the second picture is of the hardrive the computer had when I first booted up (bought "refurbished")

The machine runs very well and is amazing for my art projects and 3d animation. But I have a little trouble with accessory functions, for example adding many action key frames together with high polygon count in 3d animation software.

As you can see the pins and the slots don't match up. I simply had'nt noticed until I went to install a new hardrive.

This isnt a regualr serial ata port is it? Any advice?

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 14, 2023 4:59 AM

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Answer 1

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KnowingNoah Author

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4 points

Jan 22, 2023 7:33 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

SSDs are really good for data accuracy and speed. They can have heat issues. But if you take long enough breaks between sessions ssds can be best.

SATA is safe and reliable and take a little extra power and may have longer loading times.

I consider the pcie expansion from OWC.

Because this computer does have form factor for 29 pin SAS I'm leaning towards the raid upgrade on MaxUpgrades. Otherwise one pin on either side of the SATA is being left idle.

I guess because mine is a late model 2012? The problem is there is no specs available.

But according to many sources SAS bay is compatible with SATA hard-drives but not the other way around.

One confusing problem is there are at least two different SAS models formed for MAC one has only 10pins which is a common one for sale online made by seagate; although seagate website indentifies SAS as 29pin there are other pin arrangments.

These computers are very efficient using SATA hard-drive. But I would recommend aiming for the 2009-mid 2012 mac pro 5, 1 as the SAS upgrade will otherwise cost another $800 and it is not a huge advantage unless you are perfectly prepared for a large workload.

guys can get lost in the matrix or get taxed for playing stocks too much and lose everything.

Customers need to be protected.

so hence the compatible SATA drive is ideal. And tasks can be traded just as well at a reasonable pace🙉!

A big problem can also occur if the fans are cluttered with dust, or the cpu thermal paste becomes over used and needs to be changed.

So the advantage of the raid SAS line up is not enough for a creative professional such as myself. But I'll be forced to make it work and schedule my onscreen time in respect to good diet rest and the while getting a good software to watch the heat levels and fan function.

Not to mention AMD hd 5770 works beautifully for rendering complex animation. Even a particle fur can be accomplished. And learn allow to learn how to paint fur! Even render a little bit!

And the SATA will be good enough for a card upgrade but still the SATA Bays on a more normal 5, 1 should be considered more desirable I think.

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Answer 2

Jan 21, 2023 5:06 PM in response to KnowingNoah

Apple sold a SATA drive that fit in a bay.

The problem with today's thrid-party SATA SSD drives is Not adapting the power and data. The standard sleds were made for 3.5-in factor drives, and when you try to mount a smaller drive, the connectors do not line up.

However, OWC/MacSales sells a special sled, OWC MountPro, that allows you to bolt a 2.5-in factor SATA drive right on. I have several:

Note that this sled accommodates the hole spacing on the smaller drives, AND places the connector where it will mate with the mainboard connector.

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Answer 3

Jan 14, 2023 7:11 AM in response to KnowingNoah

No worries, your connectors have optional features that are not being used.

The smaller regular 7 pin connector is data. The larger 15-pin connector provides power: 12 Volts, 5 Volts, and 3.3 Volts. The 12 Volts is required for desktop drives that need to spin Big spindle motor.

If a drive did not require a 12 Volt spindle motor (similar to USB-Buss-powered drives) and could produce its own 3 volts by regulating down the 5 Volts, it could get by with a smaller data connector.

Wikipedia calls that power connector with no 12 Volts he slimline connector

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA#Slimline_connector

For certain drives it allows a drive with only data and slimline power. But as I have never seen such a drive, I am not certain it ever really caught on.

---------

The metal tab below the drive connector is an indirect drive temperature sensor. It often makes contact with the body of the drive, and reports that temperature.

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Answer 4

KnowingNoah Author

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4 points

Jan 21, 2023 4:38 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I'm a little worried, like am I counting wrong?

I see what your saying about voltages!

MaxUpgrades has this raid card kit, they claim to send me hard-drives and a raid card in a kit maybe thats worth and investment? Its pricey.

I'm going to try calling them on monday.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sas-raid-controller-for-mac-pro-5-1.2171853/

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Answer 5

Jan 22, 2023 8:23 AM in response to KnowingNoah

I run a RAID on my Server. RAID is great when you are forced to use Rotating magnetic drives, with their long dead times during seeks. For SSD drives, the payback is tiny, and the pain-in-the-neck-factor is still there. Any data error takes out everything with no survivors. Third-party RAID software is cranky, and MacOS refuses to install on a RAID-ed drive as a Boot Drive.

But since fast, cheap SSD drives have gotten much cheaper, I will be removing my RAID and using a single SSD drive. The extra hassle is no longer worth it for a few percentage points increase.

Today, where heat is a problem, a heat-sink is added, and you do not lose speed on modern drives. No need to mold your work around shortcomings in your SSD drives - most have been addressed and solved with proper heat-sinks. TRIM is required to avoid slowdowns, and must still be activated manually in MacOS, and I can provide an article if you like.

Your Mac Pro 2012, like mine, is dated. Its SATA bays can accept an SSD drive running SATA 6 G bits/sec, about 600M Bytes/sec. But that is nearly ten times faster that the fastest Rotating magnetic drive, and worth doing. The OWC drives come in a meal can, and do not have heat issues in those packages.

There is a bit more complexity in using the PCIe slots. I suggest you get a SATA SSD drive first, like the ones form OWC, and use it for a while. it speeds up everything, while allowing you to get used to the quirks of running off an SSD. They are cheap enough that it will be worthwhile, regardless of whether you continue to boot from it long-term.

Mac Pro 2012 PCIe slots are PCIe 2.0, and an x4 slot can provide at most 3500-ish M Byes/sec. Thunderbolt-3 connected drives [if you had ThunderBolt-3 ports] are limited to about 2500 M Bytes/sec.

OWC sells a single-device NVMe device card, and there is another popular one by Sabrent which fits an x16 slot like your Mac Pro top two slots, but as other affordable models only picks up x4 worth of data. Both have heatsink and thermal transfer pad in the box.

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Answer 6

Jan 23, 2023 12:36 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I mis-quantified what is possible in a Mac Pro 2012 and similar PCIe slot. I wrote:

Mac Pro 2012 PCIe slots are PCIe 2.0, and an x4 slot can provide at most 3500-ish M Byes/sec.

That number is the maximum transfer rate for the Mac Pro 2019 with its PCIe 3 slots. Interestingly, it is also the upper limit of readily available single NVMe SSD devices.

The correct numbers for a Mac Pro with its x4 PCIe 2.0 slots is actually smaller, around 1500-ish M Bytes/sec

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Answer 7

Jan 23, 2023 12:48 PM in response to KnowingNoah

SAS drives are a specialty item. They may not be readily available. They may be more expensive. And for what? "Regular" SATA SSD drives are faster than ANY rotating magnetic drive.

My recollection is that you must choose SATA or SAS, and all your slots become committed the same way.

EDIT: SAS appears to require the expensive and trouble-prone Mac Pro RAID card.

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Answer 8

KnowingNoah Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 26, 2023 5:04 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I actually found a matching raid card from an online distributer for only $40

One must be careful. As these computers are difficult to sell and ship, when they are being sent for recycling these kind of components are left up for grabs. Mac 5, 1 is sharp around the edges physically!

I also did buy a ?3.5" ? ssd that is specified to this machine by the same nice people (I spoke with then on the phone to ask about the weather) It's a apple ssd.

I am having trouble finding an sas drive. But the computer does very well on SATA connections and from what I understand the RAID card is SAS/SATA compatible.

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Answer 9

KnowingNoah Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2023 4:40 AM in response to KnowingNoah

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sas-drives-in-mac-pro-5-1.2176807/

I have been so doubtful!

The tangible truth is that this machine is fully capable without utilizing the upside down mini-pins.

As SAS does require the Raid card and this was an expensive upgrade. But its not necessary.

So I'm not going to stress about it and leave that as a future project to think about off screen.

Thanks for the good advice on going to OWC. I think I may take them up on that in the spring time.

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Answer 10

KnowingNoah Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2023 8:06 AM in response to KnowingNoah

Here's a mid poly jersey calf I've been working on. Sorry for any typos.

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Answer 11

Jan 14, 2023 7:14 AM in response to KnowingNoah

There are SATA Solid State Drives available for your Mac Pro. If you used an SSD drive instead of a rotating magnetic drive for the BOOT drive in your Mac Pro, it would seem substantially faster.

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